A Dark Secret: Part 1 of 3

A Dark Secret: Part 1 of 3
Casey Watson

Part 1 of 3Just when Casey thinks her foster care duties are done, she’s asked to look after Sam, a troubled nine-year-old with a violent streak who drove his previous guardians to release him of their care. It soon unfolds, however, that this is no simple case.Determined to get to the root of Sam’s behaviour, Casey is committed to uncover his mysterious past only to find out something far darker than she ever imagined…Having recently said goodbye to their last foster child, Miller, the Watson family are taking a bit of a break. But it’s while Casey is having fun catching up with her friends that she receives a call from her new link worker. Social services are desperately trying to find a settled home for nine-year-old Sam, who has Autism and some serious behavioural problems.Removed from his mother less than a week ago, Sam has been staying with respite carers. But with two young children of their own, they now find themselves unable to hold on to the little boy as he is bullying them relentlessly. It’s not an isolated situation, either. Apparently Sam’s own siblings begged not to be placed with their older brother – they were both adamant that they were too afraid of him.The Watsons agree to accommodate Sam, who, despite his tiny stature, turns out to be quite the whirlwind – destroying anything and everything in his path. In addition to the outward behaviours, it quickly becomes evident that there is a much darker past that has blighted the boy’s life. As Casey tries to get to the bottom of it, she discovers there are no files on Sam; only the testament of his previous neighbour. Thankfully, Mrs Gallagher is only too happy to help. And to talk. But it soon transpires that there is a great deal more to Sam’s secret history…

(#u71adbf17-e4ac-5ae6-8d4b-f42204178f4d)

Copyright (#u71adbf17-e4ac-5ae6-8d4b-f42204178f4d)

This book is a work of non-fiction based on the author’s experiences. In order to protect privacy, names, identifying characteristics, dialogue and details have been changed or reconstructed.

HarperElement

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published by HarperElement 2019

FIRST EDITION

© Casey Watson 2019

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Cover image © Clive Nolan/Trigger Image (posed by model)

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

Casey Watson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

www.harpercollins.co.uk/green (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/green)

Source ISBN: 9780008298616

Ebook Edition © May 2019 ISBN: 9780008298647

Version: 2019-03-28

Contents

1  Cover (#ua15bcc14-0a93-55ff-9c86-5a76fb19353d)

2  Title Page

3  Copyright

4  Contents (#u71adbf17-e4ac-5ae6-8d4b-f42204178f4d)

5  Dedication

6  Acknowledgements

7  Chapter 1

8 Chapter 2

9 Chapter 3

10 Chapter 4

11  Chapter 5

12  Chapter 6

13  Chapter 7

14  Chapter 8

15  Moving Memoirs eNewsletter (#litres_trial_promo)

16  About the Publisher

LandmarksCover (#ua15bcc14-0a93-55ff-9c86-5a76fb19353d)FrontmatterStart of Content

List of Pagesiii (#ulink_82423f45-fb19-500d-85da-79d12be4c388)iv (#ulink_cc260a25-d9d8-5c58-ba57-bbb03f64cb31)v (#ulink_2f33c3d7-26eb-5526-8279-5154f823a81f)vii (#ulink_445a8db9-5722-5af2-888b-1b27545cec46)1 (#ulink_d7129872-1432-5180-b12d-e87ee2d8ee4b)2 (#ulink_63ad410f-86ec-5a9f-b705-63e231f7aa3b)3 (#ulink_9b342687-842a-5477-a390-5b1603c15fad)4 (#ulink_e9efb245-1faf-5537-be54-9a93533f4a44)5 (#ulink_b9df4735-490e-50e7-b1e9-ebec0e5441e8)6 (#ulink_f1e0fd7d-3333-5fda-85f3-200a2a1ded95)7 (#ulink_03c34124-ff61-5e56-8b47-8e180969fac4)8 (#ulink_b418f892-8288-5648-97ea-8fe04b5a9e80)9 (#ulink_697ee4d2-d57a-5861-ab21-fd8cdbfecae9)10 (#ulink_664dbf6e-5396-5c33-8b4d-7c5546a43eb9)11 (#ulink_ebf30cd1-f177-50a5-83a8-42922d7a11b7)12 (#ulink_e9c66e71-abab-566f-8da9-223661df812b)13 (#ulink_e8f58f58-9625-572b-8009-19c04b461624)14 (#ulink_d5e59c66-21ff-5f23-af8b-8e5c6da19058)15 (#ulink_9a15a281-bd28-59b2-9cb7-0c226fa524b6)16 (#ulink_b191528f-10e5-517e-b2d1-bb59aa8b12c1)17 (#ulink_ddeb0a85-1fb6-570c-954c-fb519e64d98a)18 (#ulink_38bd601b-dd85-5d12-9202-d35b0c8f6ac5)19 (#ulink_fe4f4411-2ce7-5d07-8d37-51210c963377)20 (#litres_trial_promo)21 (#litres_trial_promo)22 (#litres_trial_promo)23 (#litres_trial_promo)24 (#litres_trial_promo)25 (#litres_trial_promo)26 (#litres_trial_promo)27 (#litres_trial_promo)28 (#litres_trial_promo)29 (#litres_trial_promo)30 (#litres_trial_promo)31 (#litres_trial_promo)32 (#litres_trial_promo)33 (#litres_trial_promo)34 (#litres_trial_promo)35 (#litres_trial_promo)36 (#litres_trial_promo)37 (#litres_trial_promo)38 (#litres_trial_promo)39 (#litres_trial_promo)40 (#litres_trial_promo)41 (#litres_trial_promo)42 (#litres_trial_promo)43 (#litres_trial_promo)44 (#litres_trial_promo)45 (#litres_trial_promo)46 (#litres_trial_promo)47 (#litres_trial_promo)48 (#litres_trial_promo)49 (#litres_trial_promo)50 (#litres_trial_promo)51 (#litres_trial_promo)52 (#litres_trial_promo)53 (#litres_trial_promo)54 (#litres_trial_promo)55 (#litres_trial_promo)56 (#litres_trial_promo)57 (#litres_trial_promo)58 (#litres_trial_promo)59 (#litres_trial_promo)60 (#litres_trial_promo)61 (#litres_trial_promo)62 (#litres_trial_promo)63 (#litres_trial_promo)64 (#litres_trial_promo)65 (#litres_trial_promo)66 (#litres_trial_promo)67 (#litres_trial_promo)68 (#litres_trial_promo)69 (#litres_trial_promo)70 (#litres_trial_promo)71 (#litres_trial_promo)72 (#litres_trial_promo)73 (#litres_trial_promo)74 (#litres_trial_promo)75 (#litres_trial_promo)76 (#litres_trial_promo)77 (#litres_trial_promo)78 (#litres_trial_promo)79 (#litres_trial_promo)80 (#litres_trial_promo)81 (#litres_trial_promo)82 (#litres_trial_promo)83 (#litres_trial_promo)84 (#litres_trial_promo)85 (#litres_trial_promo)86 (#litres_trial_promo)87 (#litres_trial_promo)88 (#litres_trial_promo)89 (#litres_trial_promo)

Dedication (#u71adbf17-e4ac-5ae6-8d4b-f42204178f4d)

This book is dedicated to the army of passionate foster carers out there, each doing their bit to ensure that our children are kept as safe as possible in such a changing and often scary world. As technology is reinvented and becomes ever more complicated for those of us who were not brought up amid such advances, we can only try to keep up, in the hope that we continue to learn alongside our young people.

Acknowledgements (#u71adbf17-e4ac-5ae6-8d4b-f42204178f4d)

I remain endlessly grateful to my team at HarperCollins for their continuing support, and I’m especially excited to see the return of my editor, the very lovely Vicky Eribo, and look forward to sharing my new stories with her. As always, nothing would be possible without my wonderful agent, Andrew Lownie, the very best agent in the world in my opinion, and my grateful thanks also to the lovely Lynne, my friend and mentor forever.

Chapter 1 (#u71adbf17-e4ac-5ae6-8d4b-f42204178f4d)

Aqua aerobics in February. In February. Had I completely lost my marbles? I couldn’t remember which of my so-called friends had suggested it, but by now I was sorely regretting having agreed to it. Not only was it absolutely Baltic outside, but I had just suffered the most embarrassing incident ever, and as we huddled in our respective changing cubicles in the leisure centre (which were only marginally less Baltic) the same so-called friends – not to mention my sister Donna – were still teasing me about it relentlessly.

‘Oh, Casey,’ Donna said, laughing, ‘such a priceless Barbara Windsor moment!’

‘I must, I must, improve my bust!’ my friend Kate added, gleefully.